As Allah Almighty has said: ﴿وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ قَوْلًا مِمَّنْ دَعَا إِلَى اللَّهِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا وَقَالَ إِنَّنِي مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ﴾[1]; “And who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah, does righteous deeds, and says: ‘I am one of the Muslims’?”—while he has brought the true speech, so that whoever is pious may accept it; as Allah Almighty has said: ﴿وَالَّذِي جَاءَ بِالصِّدْقِ وَصَدَّقَ بِهِ ۙ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ﴾[2]; “And the one who brought the true speech and confirmed it; they are indeed the pious”—and whoever is the most unjust may fabricate lies against Allah and deny the true speech; as Allah Almighty has said: ﴿فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ كَذَبَ عَلَى اللَّهِ وَكَذَّبَ بِالصِّدْقِ إِذْ جَاءَهُ ۚ أَلَيْسَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِلْكَافِرِينَ﴾[3]; “So who is more unjust than one who fabricated lies against Allah and denied the truth when it came to him? Is there not in Hell a dwelling for the disbelievers?” Of course, I would have preferred that this speech be heard from someone other than me; for if someone other than me had said it, he would have relieved me of the need to say it and lifted a heavy burden from my shoulders. Yet no one but me said it, and it was heard from no one but me. Yes, before me, a man arose from this land and said some of what I said; for he called to one who was pleasing to the family of Muhammad. However, he took the rule from the descendants of Umayyah and handed it over to the descendants of Abbas, while the descendants of Abbas were not pleasing to the family of Muhammad. Thus, I feared that if I were to wait, someone like him might arise from somewhere and repeat his mistake—by taking the rule from some oppressors and handing it over to some others under the name of “the pleasure of the family of Muhammad.” Therefore, I wanted to prevent this fitnah and keep the field clear of such people. Moreover, I heard that a call to falsehood had been raised in the West[4]; thus, I wanted a call to the truth to rise in the East, so that a call to falsehood would not be the only one heard in the world—lest Muslims unite upon falsehood and the punishment of Allah descend upon them; for sovereignty belongs solely to Allah, and He entrusts it to whomever He wills among His servants—and He has willed none but the Mahdi of Fatimah, who is pleasing to the family of Muhammad and to all Muslims. Therefore, I rose to prepare the ground for his rule in order to provide him with sufficient manpower and equipment, after I saw Muslims straying from Islam, realized their urgent need to return to it, and thought that they and I were passengers on the same ship—in such a way that my salvation depends on theirs, and my destruction is bound up with theirs.